McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, is the home of Canada’s first university team for quidditch (See Note 1). Combining elements of basketball, dodgeball and rugby, Rowling's quidditch involves two teams with seven players on each side.

NOTE 1 | Quidditch is a formerly fictional game that has been tweaked to accommodate non-magical people, or "muggles," as the author J.K. Rowling calls them in her books.

The main objective of the game is to seek out the "snitch" -- in the books, a small golden-coloured ball with wings. The "seeker" on either team tries to catch the snitch, worth 150 points, which ends the game in a victory for the successful seeker.

Since the students had no access to a flying ball, the snitch is a runner in the non-magical world. Another problem was that muggles cannot fly, so adjustments were made to the game. McGill team members have to hold their broomstick with one hand, in between their legs.

Many of McGill's quidditch players picked up their first Harry Potter book at eight or nine years old, reading about the protagonist's exploits alongside sidekicks Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

Next to the Canadian border, American university students have become equally inspired by the series. The 5th annual Quidditch World Cup (See Note 2) will be held in New York City through November 12-13, 2011. Along with McGill, competing teams include Harvard University, NYU, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and many more.

NOTE 2 | The Quidditch World Cup is held by the the International Quidditch Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the sport of Quidditch and inspiring young people to lead physically active and socially engaged lives.

?